'I get by with a little help from my friends...."



What would you think if I sang out of tune
Would you stand up and walk out on me
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not o sing out of key

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm, gonna try with a little help from my friends....
(LYRICS FROM "I GET BY WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS" BY THE BEATLES


I have been lucky in life or blessed is probably the better term.
I met the first real friend outside of church that I can remember sitting at little wooden tables in 
Ms. Carmen's kindergarten class.  She had a sweet smile, bright red hair and a fiery temper when pushed.
Natalie and I spent many long nights on the phone talking about school, boys, our dreams and 
Donny Osmond fantasies.  We stayed best friends all the way through high school taking just about every class together, talking on the phone together, sitting beside each other in band playing the flute.  We really were just about twins.  We went away to college together and lived together for a bit---we decided that if we were going to be friends---well we shouldn't live together.
After another semester, she moved to another college and somehow we lost touch only  sporadically touching base from time to time.   She was a major part of my formative years and the one thing I always knew about Natalie was that she was in my corner.
We both loved chocolate, the color purple, a good book and great music. I know she is the mother of five boys and a busy wife.  I hope at some point to get in touch with her again and catch up.

At college I met my next best and great friend---Catwoman Jean---(you know who you are).
If one person in the world could have one good, deep sister friend like my Catwoman--let's just say the world would be a different place.  She always has my back.  She is my best cheerleader.  My therapist....the best comedian I know and one of the most gentle spirits I have ever met.  We have been in each other's weddings, survived birthing four children between us--and because we have each other we haven't yet been arrested for "killing our children or our husbands".  We have laughed, cried, connived, planned, hoped and dreamed together.  She's the kind of friend that you never have to ask for anything--she knows before I even start to utter a word or even know myself.  Many days we will think of each of other and we have learned to trust the Mystery of the Universe--when we think of the other, we call.
We don't see each other but maybe once or twice a year or two. 
She's been there for the dark nights of my soul, my many nervous breakdowns, through a variety of clothes sizes and many a "bad tuna" sandwiches. (when we were first working, we'd talk each other into taking a sick day by saying we had a bad tuna sandwich)---now we are older and wiser and don't have it in us to make up an excuse but we sure used it anytime we needed to get together for girl time.
She's the one person that I know without a shadow of a doubt that if i picked the phone up at 3 am and told her I needed her---she'd be at my door by 6am (we live three hours apart).
I am blessed to call her my friend---I'm proud to call her my sister.

Then in seminary, I met my friend Rachel--Sister Rachel I called her to sound all ministerial like.
She and I became good friends when one day we were studying Greek vocabulary words and we made up really off color things to help us remember the meanings.   We shared lots of laughter and lots of stressful papers.  We continue to share our lives though calls, and texts and she occasionally sends a card---me I buy a card and stick it in a drawer and she never gets it.
We share our sermons, our secrets and our lives.
And we say things to each other that "ministers shouldn't say...."
I've gotten by many times with a bit of help from her.

I guess I've been more than blessed...I have received a super duper dose of
friendship blessings....
friends in ministry (fellow pastors who mentored me, loved me and nurtured my faith--your prayers, laughter and theological wrestling's fed my intellect and revived my spirit (Wise Woman, Lee, Mary and Diane--you know who you are--thank you).

the three sisters---Renee and Pam---you spent two years hiking and walking me through my growing pains and spiritual  bindings--when all you could do was walk with me...your walking became the prayers that sustained me.  I'm not sure I would have made it without you during that dark period of my soul.

Lisa--you broke the chains of silence and birthed a voice that many might now wish could be silence.

Dear Stole Sisters----oh how I love our holy Trinity----
I savor it like a warm cup of hot chocolate in the middle of winter.
You have helped to birth me into the depths of my authentic self and I am all the more comfortable in my skin because of our connection.

Jen---how could we have survived the workplace without each other---you know i love you and you know I'm more "sane" because of you.

JB Sister---you have the best laugh ever--I will miss our chats at JB.

As I write...I almost feel a bit selfish...
like God poured out the friendship blessings on my front porch and said, "here you go girl---look what you got..

Anytime
Anyplace
When i needed it and when i didn't....

my Sister friends....have touched my heart, my life, my very soul and lifted my Spirit
into the realms of that which cannot be spoken...
a Mystery unsolved.

Connections bound throughout the ages of time----
and I am all the better because of it.

yeah......I do get by with a bit (or a whole hell of a lot) of help and love
from my friends.

So for today, I will look into the heavens and glance at the darkness and thank the Spirit for her gifts to me.

I get by with a little help from my friends.......